The US Senate approved a resolution to limit the powers of the US President Donald Trump to conduct military operations with Iran, follows from the vote.
55 senators voted in support of the resolution, 45 voted against it. At the same time, only 45 Democrats are in the Senate.
Earlier, the US House of Representatives adopted a similar resolution, which, however, unlike the Senate, does not have the force of law. A document adopted by the Senate differs in structure and text.
A Senate document was introduced by Democrat Tim Kane. He obliges Trump to “cease all hostile actions directed against Iran” until a special order or declaration of war, which, according to the constitution, only Congress does.
Moreover, the resolution states that it should not be construed as “an obstacle to the United States protecting itself from imminent attack”. It is especially noted that the president bears “constitutional responsibility for taking measures to protect the United States, its territories, possessions, citizens, military personnel and diplomats from attack”.
The document is approved by the Senate in the form of a “joint resolution”, which is equivalent to law, goes through the same adoption procedures and requires approval by the President.
The word “joint” means that the document must be approved by both houses of Congress. So now the House of Representatives must either approve the Senate text, or approve its own version. In the second case, the conciliation commission will have to work out a single text, which will then be put to the vote of both houses.
The adoption of the document by the Senate, where the majority of the Republicans, is symbolic and shows that not all Trump’s party members share his tough course on Iran and that they fear the US will be drawn into a war with the Islamic Republic.
Trump does not intend to approve the joint resolution. He has already attacked the document with criticism, saying that this is an attempt by the Democrats to prevent the Republicans, and that now “this is not the time to show weakness”. To overcome the presidential veto, two-thirds of the votes of each of the houses of Congress will be required, which is unlikely in the current situation.